Tho’ burgeoning from November’s mood,
the cold and hollow bend the wood,
hold the stoic silence keen
where few a passerby are seen
and fewer yet remain.

That tho’ denied, the autumn’s musk
enchants the air from twig to husk,
mends the turn in hope decayed,
holds to season’s last breath played,
that by the winter gain

a promise for sweet spring’s reprise,
by still endurance and patient eye
may push a sprig through warmer duff,
mix the autumn’s scent with stuff
to bless life’s cycle spent…
fragrant blossom, fragrant scent…

Yet here today hold fast in hope
amidst this season’s depth, must cope
and through this pause remain.

10 responses to “November”

May I be so bold as to suggest a slight alteration in this free-flowing autumn poem you present today?
In line 4 of stanza 3:
Would make ‘have been’ in place of ‘are seen’ make more syntactical sense here?
[Still maintaining scanning, meaning and rhyme]

Thanks for the comment – however, “have been” loses the context of sitting in the wood at lea’s edge and feeling the temporal aspects of the image that is being created. Additionally, the flow of spoken word is much smoother when read aloud with the original phrase instead of the replacement you’ve suggested.

Sorry about the “double take on ‘make’.”
I do try to prevent errors in my comments, but they still slip by.
Looked up the word ‘duff’ as a noun, which I only knew as an adjective. Was amazed to learn that it means the ‘decaying matter on the forest floor’.
BTW, seeing that I am being impertinent here anyways, may I ask your feelings about the word ‘stuff’ in the following line? [I find its acceptance rather tough and cannot slough it soon enough as it makes my ear and eyes feel rough ]
After this, feel free to come and rubbish my work 😉

Duff – I’ve been a student of forestry. The use of “stuff” is meant to convey a somewhat “juvenile” or “immature” feeling to underline the wood’s simple hope, like a child, that dreams of spring while standing lachrymose in the face of the arid winter that is inevitably approaching. AND I would enjoy reading your work, however your Gravatar has no link connected to it. You are still a mystery and I have not been able to read what you have written.